Glaucoma is the most common type of optic neuropathies and a leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide. Characterized by progressive loss of retinal ganglion cells, measurement of their axon bundles—the retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) would be useful to detect and track the progression of the disease. The Guided Progression Analysis (GPA) (Carl Zeiss Meditec, Dublin, Calif.) is a commercially available algorithm to detect longitudinal RNFL changes in the RNFL thickness map using spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (OCT). In the analysis of RNFL thinning, change at individual pixels may be displayed in the RNFL thickness change map if the differences between two baseline visits and one follow visit are statistically greater than the test-retest variability of that particular pixel. However, the ability of GPA on the RNFL thickness map for detection of progressive RNFL thinning can be limited.
It is therefore desirable to provide improved methods and systems for detecting early progressive RNFL thinning. The current invention is designed to address these issues.